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Written Instructions Post

How To Gather Aces When Dealing Playing Cards

By: Christopher Aquilino, Benjamin Greenbaum, and Chloe Zhang

This is a crash course on how to get 4 aces in your pile when playing a game with 4 of your friends. Although this might not be honest, it works pretty well and mastery of this could provide some monetary profit if you enjoy cheating your friends. If somebody is suspicious, you can always say “luck of the draw”. We hope you enjoy and use this with discretion. 

Materials

  1. A Deck of Playing Cards
  2. Four Friends or Imaginary Friends

Instructions

Step 1: Obtain a full deck of playing cards.

A deck of purple playing cards with the logo of Grant Thornton.

Step 2: Preemptively take out the 4 Aces from the deck.

A set of playing cards fanned out on a table, ready for a game.
The ace of spades is being removed from the rest of the deck.
Four aces from a deck of cards, displayed in a fan arrangement.

Step 3: Position the deck so that the shorter side faces you, and ensure that the front of the cards, displaying the suits, are facedown.

Step 4: Place three of the Aces on top of the deck and the remaining Ace at the bottom. The order of the Aces and their placement doesn’t impact the outcome.

The rest of the deck is placed on the left of the table, and the side with the logo facing up. Three out of the four aces are on the right side of the table, with the front of the cards displaying the suits facing up.
The three aces are flipped, with the front of the cards displaying the suits facing down. The deck is still in the same position.
The three aces are now placed on top of the deck.
Placement of Three Aces
The new deck is placed on the right of the table, and the side with the logo again facing up. The last ace is on the left side of the table, with the front of the card displaying the suit facing up.
The last ace is flipped, with the front of the card displaying the suit facing down. The deck is still in the same position.
The last ace is now slid in the back of the deck from the left.
Placement of Last Ace

Step 5: Invite four friends to join you for a game that requires evenly distributed piles of cards between players. If you’re playing solo, you can enjoy the game with imaginary companions.

Four small toys, imaginary companions, on a wooden desk: a yellow chick with a ribbon, a plush bear, a penguin, and a Pokémon called Pysduck.

Step 6: Ask to be the one to shuffle the deck.

Step 7: Hold the deck with your non-dominant hand.

Step 8: Using your dominant thumb, repeatedly draw one card from the top of the deck.

The card from the top of the deck is held in the dominant hand. The rest of the deck is held in the non-dominant hand. Both piles of cards have the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.
The next card in the deck is mid-way transferred from the deck in the non-dominant hand to the top of the card in the dominant hand.
There are now two cards in the dominant hand from the deck. The non-dominant hand is still holding the deck. The process is done.

Step 9: Continuously put the card you draw on top of the previous card to create a new stack of 11 cards using your dominant hand. 

There are now eleven total cards in the dominant hand from the deck. The non-dominant hand still holds the rest of the deck. Both piles still have the front of the cards displaying the suits face down

Step 10: Place those 11 cards back on top of the deck.

The eleven cards in the dominant hand are being slid on top of the deck in the non-dominant hand.

Step 11: For the next step, memorize the sequence: 4, 5, 1, 5. Repeat the same technique of drawing one card from the top of the deck and stacking others accordingly.

Step 12: This time, the stack length will be each number in the sequence provided in step 11. Ensure that each pile is placed at the bottom of the deck after forming it.

Note: The sequence in Step 11 is performed only once.

The card from the top of the deck is held in the dominant hand. The rest of the deck is held in the non-dominant hand. Both piles of cards have the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.
The next card in the deck is mid-way transferred from the deck in the non-dominant hand to the top of the card in the dominant hand.
There are now two cards in the dominant hand from the deck. The non-dominant hand is still holding the deck. The process is done.
There are now 4 total cards from the dominant hand on the table, on the left side fanned out. The deck is on the right side. Both pile of cards has the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.
The same four cards are being slid in the back of the deck from the right.
The four cards are now completely on the bottom of the deck.
Stack of 4
There are now 5 total cards from the dominant hand on the table, on the left side fanned out. The deck is on the right side. Both pile of cards has the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.
The same five cards are being slid in the back of the deck from the right.
The five cards are now completely on the bottom of the deck.
Stack of 5
There is now 1 total card from the dominant hand on the table, on the left side fanned out. The deck is on the right side. Both pile of cards has the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.
The same one card is being slid in the back of the deck from the right.
The one card is now completely on the bottom of the deck.
Stack of 1
There are now 5 total cards from the dominant hand on the table, on the left side fanned out. The deck is on the right side. Both pile of cards has the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.
The same five cards are being slid in the back of the deck from the right.
The five cards are now completely on the bottom of the deck.
Stack of 5

Step 14: Count 5 cards from the bottom of the deck as if you are cutting the deck each time i.e. you are taking the original bottom portion of the deck as it is.

Step 15:  At this stage, refrain from drawing one card from the top and stacking others as usual. Instead, keep this pile of 5 cards in the same order it was placed under the deck.

Five cards are being slid out to the left from the bottom of the deck. It is kept in the same order as it was in the back of the deck.

Step 16: Hold the pile of 5 cards in your right hand while keeping the deck in your left hand.

The deck is placed on the left side of the desk, and the five cards on the right side of the desk. Both piles have the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.

Step 17: Place the identified 5 cards on top of the deck.

The five cards are now placed on top of the deck.

Step 18: Shift 15 more cards from bottom to top by repeating Steps 15-18 three more times.

Step 19: Proceed to distribute the cards by dividing the deck into five piles. 

Step 20: Ensure you get the fifth pile for the game.

One card is on the table, being distributed from the deck. The card has the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.
Two cards are on the table, being distributed from the deck. The cards have the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.
Three cards are on the table, being distributed from the deck. The cards have the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.
Four cards are on the table, being distributed from the deck. The cards have the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.
The cards are now distributed by a sample amount. The rest of the deck is in the background, and there are now the small toys placed by four of the distributed piles. The cards have the front of the cards displaying the suits face down.

Step 21: By following these steps, you’ll find all four Aces within your deck.

The cards are now distributed by a sample amount. The rest of the deck is in the background, and there are now the small toys placed by four of the distributed piles. This time the fifth deck is flipped over, showing all four of the cards as the four aces in the deck.

Notes:

  • This method works with any four randomly chosen cards, as long as you start with the desired arrangement of three cards on top and one at the bottom of the deck.
  • To be more discreet when performing these steps, we suggest that the process requires a lot of practice before being executed during an actual game. It may be helpful to practice with imaginary companions, plushies included!

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